THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT FOR ‘THIS WEEK’ ON October 9, 2016 and it
will be updated.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: That is the debate hall in Washington University, St.
Louis, 9:00 p.m. tonight, 9 Eastern tonight the candidates are going to face
off. It promises to be rollicking. We’re going to talk about Hillary’s strategy
with DNC Chair Donna Brazile, next. And we are back now with the chair of the
Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile. Donna, thank you for coming in
this morning. You heard Rudy Giuliani right there. He said that Donald Trump
isn’t going anywhere, he’s staying in the race, and that he’s a changed man.

DONNA BRAZILE, CHAIR, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Ha! Well, look,
George, you can draw a straight line between what Donald Trump said in 2005 and
what he has been saying every day on the campaign trail over the last
year-and-a-half. This is not a changed man. This is who Donald Trump truly is. When
you criticize a judge simply because of his Mexican heritage, when you call
women some of the most disgusting things, when you criticize John McCain,
criticize people who are disabled, this is who Donald Trump truly is. I’m
surprised that the Republicans are disgusted about Donald Trump after all of
the things that he has said and all of the comments -- the comments that he
made over the last couple of years.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, they are running away from him right now.

BRAZILE: Right.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But -- and Donald Trump including -- just minutes ago,
is Tweeting again, Juanita Broderick, a woman who claims...

BRAZILE: Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- that she was raped by Bill Clinton, signaling
perhaps this is going to come up tonight.

BRAZILE: Donald Trump has been threatening, as you well know, for --
for weeks that he is going to bring up President -- former President Clinton’s
affairs. Look, at the time, as you well know, George, Secretary Clinton
suffered. Chelsea Clinton suffered. And President Clinton was impeached. He was
held accountable. There is no accountability for Donald Trump in the -- in the
ridiculous and sexist things that he has said and racist things that he has
said over the past few years. So I’m -- I’m not surprised that Donald Trump is
-- is going to try to change the subject. But, you know, tonight’s debate is
designed for voters to hear from the candidates, hear real positive solutions.
And that’s what Secretary Clinton is prepared to do tonight -- talk to voters.
She’s not going to, you know, get into the -- what I call the fifth that Donald
Trump seems to drum up every time he gets in trouble.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But she’s going to address this video tonight.

BRAZILE: Well, I hope so. I mean I hope that she has an opportunity to
-- to call this sexual assault, to say that this is sexual predatory language,
this was not locker room banter. And I hope she has an opportunity to -- to
talk about her policies for women, and her policies for the country, as well.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you see all of these Republicans over the course of
the week have been calling on -- on Donald Trump to step aside.

You don’t want that, do you?

BRAZILE: It would be political suicide for Donald Trump to -- to step
down right now. But that being said, when you have the chairman of the party,
who normally would like to sit next to me decide not to show up, that’s a --
that’s a signal that this party is uncomfortable with the top of their ticket. We’re
not uncomfortable. We’re out there every day, the Democratic Party. We have a
robust operation. We’re supporting Democrats from the top of the ticket all the
way down to the poor house. We’re very satisfied with the ground game that we’re
going to have, because we have a strong candidate.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But aren’t you worried that if Mike Pence steps in or
some other Republican steps in, with Secretary Clinton’s high unfavorables,
this could be a much closer race?

BRAZILE: George, as you well know, people are voting in over a dozen
states. Absentee ballots are being mailed out. Mike Pence can step in all he
wants, but the problem is how do you -- how do you start to tell voters in 30
days that they can’t vote for the person whose name might appear on the ballot
but they have to vote for someone -- it’s -- it would be very confusing.

All I’m telling voters is that go ahead and support Hillary Clinton,
support the Democrats, because if you really want to continue the progress we’ve
made on jobs and -- and keeping the country safe and prosperous, that’s Clinton-Kaine.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Will the Democratic Party oppose efforts in the states,
if it comes to that, to change the names on the ballot?

BRAZILE: I’m sure my legal team is already looking at efforts underway,
if there are any efforts underway. But right now, we are focused on keeping, as
we say, encouraging people to vote early to get out there and to continue voter
registration and to turn out on election day.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You also heard Rudy Giuliani say something that I take
is true, had this story not broken on Friday afternoon, today we’d be spending
a lot of time on those emails that were released on Friday. John Podesta, the
chairman of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, emails talking about those speeches she
gave to private groups back before she started to run for president, including
one where she talked about -- this was one excerpt of a speech. “My dream is a
hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders some time in the
future, with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering
growth and opportunity for every person in the homeland. Open trade and open
borders. This is the kind of thing that, had this come out, as he pointed out,
Mr. Giuliani pointed out, is to have this come out during the primaries with Bernie
Sanders, this would have been devastating to Hillary.

BRAZILE: You know, I was with Bernie the other
day when -- when some of this WikiLeaks stuff came out. And Bernie Sanders went
out there to tell voters in New Hampshire that he is -- he’s with Hillary
Clinton and Secretary Clinton -- second -- I mean Senator Tim Kaine.

George, when you see something postmarked from
Russia, you should be afraid to open up the document.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But these are legit, aren’t they?

BRAZILE: When you see what -- I don’t know. I
-- I refuse to open these documents. I refuse to allow a foreign government, a
foreign -- or fg communities -- to interfere and meddle and manipulate
information. So I don’t know if it’s true or not true. But I could tell you
what she’s been saying in public about trade, what she’s been saying in public
about Wall Street, what she has been saying in public about immigration reform.
I have no idea if these documents -- they have been, as you know, selectively
leaking and manipulating documents. Postmark, the United States government
finally acknowledged that these -- that the Democratic Party, Democratic
institutions have been hacked and I don’t trust any -- anything that
(INAUDIBLE).

STEPHANOPOULOS: So I mean you don’t -- you don’t believe these are
actually the excerpts of the speeches?

BRAZILE: Let me just say something, George. As you -- as you well know,
the reason why Secretary Clinton’s speeches became a topic in the primary is because
she released her taxes, where, I mean Donald Trump has not released his taxes. So
I -- I believe that that information may -- I don’t know, George. I refuse to
open them. And I’ve -- I’ve asked the staff at the DNC and all of our
democratic allies, don’t open up that crap, because it’s postmarked from
Russia.

STEPHANOPOULOS: We saw -- we’ve seen these reports now that the
Republican National Committee moving -- moving money away from Donald Trump...

BRAZILE: Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- toward their Senate and House candidates. If Mr.
Trump remains on the ticket, do you believe that the -- not only the Senate,
but the House is in play for Democrats?

BRAZILE: I think so, George. And I think we have -- we have a great
opportunity, the Democratic Party, in winning back statehouses across the
country. We’re targeting statehouses across the country. Our -- our
Congressional candidates, our red to blue program is a very good program. I see
results of it already across the country in Nevada and Colorado. So yes, I am
-- I’m convinced that we have an opportunity to put the House in play, as well.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Donna Brazile, thanks for joining us this morning.

BRAZILE: Thank you.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The Powerhouse Roundtable ready to weigh in live when
we come back.